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The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire: The Cognitive Facet of Wisdom and its Relation with Memory, Affect, and Hope

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Abstract

Wisdom is a topic that holds much promise as geropsychologists turn their attention to the positive facets of aging. This study aimed at (a) examining the construct validity of a new scale for measuring the cognitive facet of wisdom, and (b) analyzing the relations between wisdom and demographic factors, hope, affect, and memory. The participants of the main sample were 446 adults, aged 20–80 years. For the validation of the scale, a second sample (N = 89) was used; it comprised two subsamples of 37 older adults and 52 young adults. The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire (WITHAQ) was used along with measures of hope, state affect and memory abilities. Ardelt’s 3D-WS was used for validation purposes. A three-factor structure of the WITHAQ with interrelations between the factors was confirmed, reflecting practical wisdom, integrated dialectical thinking, and awareness of life uncertainty, respectively. The relations between the WITHAQ, 3D-WS, and the measure of hope were in the predicted direction. The interaction of age and education predicted the three factors of the WITHAQ positively. Pearson correlations showed that the three factors were differentially associated with affect and memory.

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Notes

  1. This is a Greek saying that emphasizes the sudden and unpredicted nature of everyday life events.

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Acknowledgments

We greatly appreciate the time and efforts of the participants and of psychology students who collected the data of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Despina Moraitou & Anastasia Efklides

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  1. Despina Moraitou
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  2. Anastasia Efklides
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Correspondence to Despina Moraitou.

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Moraitou, D., Efklides, A. The Wise Thinking and Acting Questionnaire: The Cognitive Facet of Wisdom and its Relation with Memory, Affect, and Hope. J Happiness Stud 13, 849–873 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9295-1

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